User:Loes van Dorp/own memories

Carrot

Without thinking I am preparing dinner. A take the big carrot out of the fridge to clean it.

Suddenly very aware of what I do and where I am, I am staring at the Carrot.

It brings me back to the age of 6.

My mother is washing a big carrot. "He was about that big" I said to her while pointing at the carrot. For a couple of months I would keep saying that every time I saw a big carrot.

It was December 1987 and I was always the first one awake in the house.

To not wake the others ( my brother and parents) I was allowed to play downstairs. That is what I did on the 12th of december.

I made a football team with all my small dolls and let the team with the small animals win. The cat ( Mauwtje) was sitting in front of the window. Suddenly he started meowing.

I unlocked the door to scare away the white cats of the neighborhood who were always teasing our cat. I really hated them.

Not very later the cat started meowing again. I looked out the window to see if it were the white cats again. Only to see a man standing by the door and knocking on it.

I do not remember why, but I opened the door just a little. Maybe I thought I could help this man.

"Do you want to hold my willy?" He asked me. I do not remember if I answered, but I know I was scared and closed the door very quick. I locked the door with only the lock on

the bottom. To lock the upper one too I had to stand on a chair and look him in the eye, therefore I didn't lock that one.

In the hope he would leave by himself I tried to ignore him and took a game book with word puzzles in it. With one eye I kept looking at the door, to see if the man still was there.

He hadn't left and was pushing his willy against the window door. He was wearing a yellow raincoat.

After a couple minutes I walked to the stairs and called for my father "Dad, there is a man at the door asking me to hold his willy"

Before my dad was down, the man was gone and we heard the sound of a motorcycle leaving.

My mother washing the window, the police coming over.

My mother explaining that the man was sick. There was something wrong in his head and that he needed help.

I felt sad for him and didn't want him to be in jail, because he was sick and needed help.

It was my parents weddingsday.

Back in the present I finsh cleaning the carrot, taking a knife and start cutting it into small pieces.

others about this memory

New Shoes

Finally the day was there. I just turned six and together with my father we would go to town to buy a new pair of shoes.

Outside the weather was like autumn days can be like; windy.

"Do you want to cycle yourself, or sit on the crossbar with me?" my Father asked me.

I didn't like to cycle in hard wind and sitting on the crossbar was always very exciting. "on the crossbar!" was my answer.

With the strong wind in our faces we were on our way to the shoe store. Out of happiness and excitement I was not able to sit still and started swinging with my legs.

Suddenly I felt pain in my left leg and saw everything happening next in slow-motion. My left leg had blocked the front wheel of the bike. This resulted in a rollover of the bike.

My father flew off the bike and made a small salto in the air before landing on the ground. He shove over the ground for a small distance before coming to a standstill.

I found myself on the ground with a very painful left leg crying.

A man who was passing by in his car saw it all happen and stopped to help us.

He offered us a ride to the hospital. My father carried me in the car, I was not able to walk.

We both set in the front of the car. Instead of our trip to the shoe store, we went to the hospital.

Ironically the man who drove us there, was a shoe maker for living. In his car were a lot of boxes with shoes in it. My father and I were laughing about this.

My mother had been working all day and didn't know better than to see me with my new shoes.

It was a real surprise for her to find me with only one new shoe, a plastered one.

Match

It was a Sunday morning that my older brother and decided to make breakfast for our parents. (I was 7 or 8 years old.)

We were wearing morning robes and pyama's. My brother lighted a match to put on the fire for the tea. The head of the match flew of the stick while being on fire.

It flew on my robe and my robe caught fire. I started screaming and jumping hysterically.

My brother stayed very calm and just unknotted my robe which made it fall down and we easily could put out the fire.

The stairs

I had walking plaster on my leg and was able to walk around on it.

My brother and I were playing at the stairs. The big pillow on the bottom of the stairs, we jumped of the steps.

Each time we were able to jump one we went one step up. I stopped at step 4, because I had to be a bit careful with my leg, didn't want to end in the hospital again.

My brother went higher and higher, until he was able to jump from the top step of the stairs.

After he did that a couple of times without making an mistake, he called our parents and grandparents. "Look what I can do!"he said to them.

And before they could protest he jumped of the top of the stairs. He was a little bit too enthusiastic and therefore putted a little too much power in his take off.

He jumped too high and smacked his head to the sealing and fell straight down and landed with his back on the upper three stairs.

We were all in shock. I kept saying to my parents that he was able to do it before without getting hurt.